Lawson is currently in rehab in Los Angeles after his second DUI arrest in 2015, but the Rockets didn’t give up much to get the best player in the deal, so if he can solve his personal problems the reward appears to be worth the risk. However, it is not clear Lawson is what the Rockets need to get to the next level.

In Houston’s offense, Harden has the ball a slightly smaller percentage of the time than an average “point guard”. Of the time they spend on the court, the league average for point guards is around 17% time of possession. Harden’s TOP is 16.4%, but that is both highest on the Rockets by a decent margin (Beverley is second at 13.2%, making Houston the only team in the league where the nominal point does not have the ball the most among their starters – the only other team which is close is Cleveland) and more than Steph Curry, a similarly shoot-first player. Harden also averages more touches than any other Rocket; only he, Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade and Victor Oladipo lead their respective teams in touches as “non-point guards”.

It is not simply that Harden has the ball in his hands the most. Assist Usage is a metric which measures the percentage of possessions in which a player sets up a teammate for a shot or scoring opportunities. And in this metric, Harden is 18th in the NBA at 18.8%, ahead of Damian Lillard, Derrick Rose, Tony Parker, Brandon Knight and Darren Collison among others. By any measure, Harden is the engine that makes Houston’s extreme ‘MoreyBall’ threes-and-free throws style offense go. Not just in the sense that the offense is less effective without his scoring, but without his relentless, driving presense, the entire system dies on the vine.

Where the Rockets will need Lawson to excel is defending the other team’s point guard, a task for which Harden was ill-suited, but one in which Beverley performed admirably.

Beverley was often used to shutdown the oppositions point guard, and, according to Synergy Sports, he held all opponents to 0.78 points per play — fifth fewest among guards defending at least 500 possessions. Free agent Terry, who played over 1,600 minutes for the Rockets last year, allowed 0.75 points per play — third fewest among guards defending at least 500 possessions. Lawson allowed 0.89 points per play, higher than average.

The Rockets were 5.2 points per 100 possessions better with Harden on the bench, so it would be a defensive nightmare to have both Harden and Lawson on the court together, which means Beverley could start with Lawson coming off the bench. But that still creates a defensive liability at the point, making me wonder if a change of scenery will be enough to help Lawson bring Houston one step closer to a championship.

Neil GreenbergNeil Greenberg is a staff writer with The Washington Post whose beat is sports analytics. His analysis and insight can be found in the sports section, where he covers the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB as well as college football and basketball. Follow